ASMZ Soothes The Ears With Musical Landscapes

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band otherwise known as A Silver Mount Zion (ASMZ), whom I recently began listening to, has some incredible symphonic atmospheric tracks. Formed in 1999, this Canadian band features three members from the progressive atmospheric indie rock band God Speed You Black Emperor!. To date 5 albums are to their credit (wiki). You hear influences from such bands as God Speed You Black Emperor! (of course) and Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Ros, and This Will Destroy You - all incredible bands themselves. Check out the audio only 'tube clip below. Sit back, press play and mellow out to this 8 minute melodic super piece.

ASMZ - 13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round the Side of Your Bed

I have a thing for girls with glasses (Roth included)...

The Original 'Girl with Glasses'. I heart Lisa Loeb.

Douche Bags and Hot Chicks

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Another BBQ featuring...

Gooood Eats. This past's Sunday BBQ (6/22) featured:

Gary's BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Rice Balls, and Grilled Corn

Colin's Cedar Plank BBQ Salmon, Fried Candy Bars (pictured below) , and Fried Oreos (pictured below)

Eric's Homemade Donuts (pictured below)

Soulja Dara

Superman!



Um...I don't get it. What am I talking about? Here

Live-Action Robotech Movie Coming to the Big Screen

*Gasp* Robotech is set to make it to the big screen (probably riding the recent success of the live-action Transformer movie - o/w transforming robots are 'in'). Warner Brothers is to hire veteran screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (such works include The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark). Honestly, I was 2 parts Robotech for every 1 part Transformers in the 80s. I'm pumped. Who's gonna play Rick Hunter?

Story Here.

Cancelled my 24 Hr Fitness membership

Access to the UW's IMA center (school's gym) is integrated into tuition cost. Given that, it made sense to cancel my existing 24 Hr Fitness membership. I realized this when I went once to '24 last month and was charged $46.99. Yikes! I heard runaround horror stories of canceling a'24 membership. Mine was moderately frustrating:


1. Called gym. Given 800 number to call.
2. 800 number automated personal tells me to call gym (and hangs up on me!)
3. Called gym again. She tells me a representative will call me back.
4. 1 Hr later, representative called backed. She asked, "are you SURE you want to quit?" and "why do you want to quit."
5. Membership finally officially canceled.


**BTW, Ironically the '24 Hr' gym I frequented was open from '7AM-9PM'.

Happy Father's Day

Pop and I

I ate a egg...look it!

Ellie, my niece, proud of her egg eating.



From Easter Sunday '08.

I'm trying to finish my last (take-home) final...shit just got real!!!

Someone tell Seattle it's June!

Average weather here in Seattle: temp in the 60s with scattered showers. Geez. I never thought I would miss the uber dry heat of Davis, CA (town where I went to college). Here's the deal: California is in a state of a drought and Seattle keeps raining like it's the dead of winter. I purpose a trade: California FedEX us some sunny sun and we will DHL some rainy rain. Bleh...

Guns N' Roses - Don't Cry

Liquid Smoke Time!

Eric was up to the challenge...



What is Liquid Smoke?

The Journey Continues

Here is a youtube clip from Journey's first Studio Performance on Ellen with Filipino front man Arnel Pineda . Pineda ironically was found by existing members of the post-80's rock band on youtube. In the Phillipines Pineda fronted a Journey cover band. Clips of his Pineda's band 'Zoo' had various clips on the 'tube. Like here. The rest is history. Go Asians!

This ain't no we are the world crap...

from Wikipedia: When attending a 48 hour charity "Radiothon" at the radio station KLOS, Jimmy Bain (of Rainbow and Dio) and Vivian Campbell (at that time still in Dio, later to play in Whitesnake and Def Leppard) noticed that the representation of heavy metal stars was scarce. In the light of the success of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and USA for Africa's "We Are The World" they forwarded the idea to Ronnie James Dio, also attending the Radiothon, and they decided to make a similar project exclusively built on artists from the heavy metal scene. Together the three cowrote the song Stars.

On May 20 & 21, 1985 , 40 artists gathered at the A&M Records Studio in Hollywood, California to record the Stars album. The project included members of such bands as Dio, Quiet Riot, Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister, Queensrÿche, Blue Öyster Cult, Dokken, Night Ranger, Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., Journey, Y&T, Vanilla Fudge, and the parody band Spinal Tap. Within a year, the project had raised $1 million.

Houston, I need to drop the deuce...

The toilet on the International Space Station was repaired upon the recent arrival of the Discovery Shuttle Team. Right on...I know, thanks google news for alerting me. More here. All this hype lead me to ask, "so how does it work in space?" This video explains it all. No wonder this guy needs to pee - he's so amped up from the line of double espressos he chased in prep for this vid.

My Morning Jacket's New Album!

MMJ's Evil Urges is coming out 6.10.08!



Listen to the whole album exclusively on myspace

Yay! More secrets about the house unlocked!

OK, I just figured out that I can't turn the bathroom fan on and use the microwave at the same time - it trips the circuit. What next?

Kinda reminds me of this commerical:

Special Olympics 2008

Tacoma, WA. Special Olympics 2008 are currently going on this weekend. In addition to competing, the Athletes are welcome to participate in the health fair located adjacent to the on field events. Included are booths featuring dental, vision, and hearing screenings. 'Healthy Hearing' - headed by UW Speech and Hearing Department faculty/students and friends - screens Athletes and their friends/families making appropriate referrals when necessary. Yesterday, we screened about 140 people. It was a load of fun! Oh yea, Miss Washington just so happen to be walking on by when we took our group photo. I also snagged a pic of just her and I. =).